Palo Alto Pa-4000 Series

The Palo Alto Networks PA-4000 Series is a group of three next-generation high performance platforms consisting of, the PA-4060, the PA-4050 and the PA-4020, that are targeted at high speed Internet gateway deployments within enterprise environments. The PA-4000 Series manages multi-Gbps traffic flows using dedicated processing and memory for networking, security, threat prevention and management. A 10 Gbps backplane levels the pathway between processors and the physical separation of data and control plane makes sure that management access is always on-hand, no matter of the traffic load.

Palo Alto Networks' PA-4000 series firewall appliances use proprietary App-ID signature technology to establish the applications inflowing and dpearting your network, even those encrypted via SSL. This allows IT administrators to enforce strict security policies stating which applications are authoritative to enter and leave the network. What's more, Palo Alto provides integration with Microsoft Active Directory, so firewall policies can be related to certain users.

Network traffic graphs are impressive and allow for ease of use, applications are shown in clear and constructive ways, and information like source and destination, IP addresses and traffic counts are simple to access by clicking on the coloured boxes that represent particular applications.

App-ID is the foundation of the PA-4000 Series and was made to help IT recapture application visibility and control, App-ID’s application-centric approach to traffic classifi-cation addresses security evasion tactics commonly used in many of today’s new applications. App-ID uses four traffic identification mechanisms that operate in concert to determine exactly what application is running on the network.

With Palo Alto Networks PA-4000 Series next-generation firewall, organisations can accurately detect and manage appli-cations flowing in and out of the network by organising traffic from an application-centric perspective. Established around a new traffic classification technology called App-ID, the PA-4000 Series can correctly ascertain which applications are flowing across the network, no matter of the port, protocol, SSL encryption or evasive characteristic. Equipped with this comprehensive knowledge, security administrators can employ policy-based controls over the applications on their network at the gateway to attain the following business advantages:

• Lessen the chances of risk through policy-based application usage control and threat detection


• Allow growth by implementing web-based applications in a guarded and safe manner


• Assist operational effectiveness by managing application usage at the firewall gateway